Mammy’s Chicken Inn, Salt Lake City

Mammy's Chicken Inn menu cover, Salt Lake City
Image adapted from worthpoint

Mammy’s Chicken Inn was located at 890 W 2100 South (now Flying J Travel Center parking lot). This is a new one for me.

The restaurant was owned by George Gerard-Theodoracopulos) (1891-1965) who was born in Crete, Greece, and came to SLC in 1910, and his wife Mary L. H. Gerard, originally from Grand Junction, Colorado, and came to SLC in 1917.

The Gerards (as they were commonly known) were associated with several restaurants throughout the years including Mammy’s Chicken Inn, Silver Slipper, Charlott Club, Streamliner, and Dahlia Inn. And many of these got into some trouble with the law regarding bootlegging, bribery, and gambling devices.

The Silver Slipper Inn operated about 1930-1941 and is notable for its location at 3100 Highland Drive, just down the street from another restaurant owned by a different family but also using racist icons, the Coon Chicken Inn at 2960 Highland Drive, which operated 1925-1957.

The Coon Chicken Inn featured an overembellished character of a bald Black man with a porter’s cap. I have posted about this in the past and there is a Wikipedia page on this one.

The Gerards opened Mammy’s Chicken Inn in 1947 at the corner of 900 West and 2100 South SLC. It used the Mammy caricature throughout its branding, including on menus and souvenirs. I could not find a photo of the restaurant but the illustration on the menu shows a large Mammy sign on top of the building’s entrance.

Mammy's Chicken Inn menu. Image adapted from worthpoint

 

Mammy's Chicken Inn menu. Image adapted from worthpoint

Mammy's Chicken Inn menu. Image adapted from worthpoint

Mammy's Chicken Inn advertisements, from the Salt Lake Tribune

The last reference I could find to Mammy’s Chicken Inn being operational was their New Year’s Eve advertisement in December 1960. By this time, the Coon Chicken Inn had already closed.

In SLC (and presumably elsewhere) the term “Mammy Chicken” was used to describe the style of fried chicken as well as to infer authenticity.

I found other references to the use of the term Mammy Chicken for Utah restaurants. A selection of those: 

• 1919: A “real colored mammy” Mammy Margette at Roselawn 4374 Highland Drive
• 1930: Delicious Mammy Fried Chicken, Cabaret Dancing after 9 pm, at Blue Moon Car Service, 3618 Highland Drive
• 1931: Mammy’s Friend Chicken at Glaus’ Coffee Shop, cooked by a different process, 169 S Main SLC
• 1937: Home Cooked Food, Mammy Fried Chicken at Sugar House Café 1058 E 2100 S
• 1941: Mammy Fried Chicken and J. Dean’s Rhythm Boys at Dixieland Tavern, Ogden Highway
• 1948: Mammy Fried Chicken, Home Cooked Meals, Ethel’s Café in Roy, Utah

For additional historical context:

• 1889: Aunt Jemima as a Mammy caricature
• 1909: NAACP founded in NYC
• 1919: Salt Lake Branch of the NAACP founded
• 1925: Lynching of Robert Marshall in Price, Utah
• 1954: Brown v. Board of Education
• 1955: Emmitt Till murder, Rosa Parks bus arrest
• 1960: MLK and others were arrested for a sit-in protest
• 1963: MLK’s I Have a Dream Speech and the March on Washington
• 1978: LDS Church Official Declaration 2 removed the racial restriction of priesthood

Coon Chicken Inn Restaurant, 2960 S Highland Drive

Vintage postcard of Coon Chicken Inn, ca 1940.

Another cringe-worthy part of SLC’s past: Coon Chicken Inn Restaurant which was renowned for its use of racial slurs in its name and menu items.

Located at 2960 S. Highland Drive, the restaurant was established in 1925 by Adelaide and Maxon L. Graham.

The restaurant employed Black people as wait staff and cooks, but they were not necessarily welcome as customers.

It was originally a small restaurant but in July 1927 some paper napkins caught fire and spread through the grease-soaked kitchen, destroying most of building.

Following the fire, Maxon, mostly as a publicity stunt, announced that he would rebuild and reopen the restaurant in 10 days. The restaurant was enlarged and it became a huge building with a dance floor and an orchestra.

At this time Maxon also added the famous (and infamously racist) caricature “Coon head” as a gimmick to attract travelers in the new age of roadside restaurants, novelty architecture, and automobile convenience.

This 12-foot-tall caricature of a Black man wearing a porters cap with the words “Coon Chicken Inn” spelled out on teeth framed by huge red lips. Customers would enter the restaurant through the middle of the mouth.

At the time, this caricature proved very popular it became the symbol of the restaurant and was used in all advertisements.

In 1929 the Grahams further expanded their business and opened another Coon Chicken Inn in Seattle Washington and the following year they opened another in Portland, Oregon.

The restaurants continued to be successful through the 1940s. However, after World War II racial sentiments began to change and protests against the restaurants and the associated caricature increased.

The Grahams closed the Coon Chicken Inn restaurants in Seattle and Portland in 1949 and leased the buildings to others. The SLC restaurant remained open until 1957.

A Chuck-O-Ramma restaurant took over the building once the SLC Coon Chicken Inn restaurant closed. Today, the building has been demolished.

Images: 1) Postcard
2) SLC restaurant ca. 1930 from @utahhistory_collections
3-4) menu from @utahhistory_collections

The SLC location of Coon Chicken Inn,
2960 S Highland Drive. ca 1930. From UDSH.

Image of a plate from Coon Chicken Inn. From UDSH.

Image of menu from Coon Chicken Inn. From UDSH.

Image of menu from Coon Chicken Inn. From UDSH.

Image of menu from Coon Chicken Inn. From UDSH.

Meeting at Coon Chicken Inn, showing interior. From UDSH.